The Difference Between Wishes and Dreams
by Angel Marie
Summary: Angel Marie Maxwell just got promoted to the second highest position in the very famous Winner Corps. There is one problem though, she dislikes her boss a lot. Being the youngest employee in Winner Corps. isn't as easy as it seems and he doesn't make i
1. Chapter 1

The Difference Between Wishes And Dreams: Chapter 1  
  
Written By: Angel Marie  
  
'The youngest person working for the, all, too, famous Mr. Winner, in his very own company, the Winner Corps. * Sigh* All that work I did in school paid off after all.' I think to myself as I sit at my large mahogany desk realizing that I had nothing to do, not even hearing all the clattering of drawers and the sound of paper being shuffled around outside of my office. There is an urgent knock at my door and before I can reply a man walks in, he has a very muscular build and at well over six feet he uses it to his advantage, brown hair that is too long for a guy, at least in my opinion, he always has it in a braid too, he has beautiful cobalt blue eyes that flatter a women even if he just looks at them. They have never flattered me though, that would be wrong. "Hey Duo, what are you doing here?" "Ahh, nothing, I just heard that you have the second highest position in this company and you are still only sixteen, I am so proud of you Angel, so are mom and dad." He looks at his sister with love and admiration, she was a lot shorter than he, standing at about five foot six she didn't even come up to his chin, she had beautiful long black hair, that she always wore up when she was at work, and a pair of legs that a man could look at a million times but still have to take another glance at, she had the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen, they were not a regular shade like blue or green, they were prettier, a lovely shade of dark purple, she didn't even wear contacts to make them that color, they just were. "You could have done just as well if you didn't stick around that house," I tell him laughing as I play with my electric chair's remote, thing, and hit the button that gives a massage. "You know damn well that I wouldn't have lived through High School with the principle, Mr. Plaguing, watching my every move," he says knowing he had proved his point. He walks by the desk to take a look at my computer. "Hey does this thing have any games?" I shake my head, " some things never change," I mumble to myself rubbing his head, "yes my dear, deprived brother." "Hey! Watch the hair girlie," he says pulling away, "may I play one?" He asks and I nod moving out of my chair. "You mean I get the good chair? Where you going?" He asks as I head to the door. "Me?" "Yes you, you are not supposed to leave me in here unsupervised, remember what happened last time?" I giggle as I remember the atrocious mess he made in my last office, "yeah you made quite a mess didn't you?" He nods proudly, " well this equipment is much more expensive so if you break you buy. I'm not paying for cleaning up your mess this time," I say opening the door with a flick of my wrist. "Oh, and before I forget, absolutely no porn sites this time, they are tracking what sites we visit, plus, I don't feel like deleting all of them again." He blushes, I hear the mouse click and guess that he just closed a window with a very naughty site on it. "I will be back in five." I say walking out of the room heading towards the soda machines. 'God I am so glad he decided to come visit me at work today,' I think sighing. I put the dollar into the machine and push on the button that has a picture of a can of Vanilla Coke and walk back to my office, opening the door I find my brother yelling at the computer. "Hey.that should have.yes!" At this moment I am questioning my brothers sanity and deciding that I should have probably stayed by the soda machine after I got my drink. So I start walking to the door again. "Angel where y-" he cuts off to yell a steady stream of curses at the computer screen. "Oh, your boss called, he said that he wants to see you in his office as soon as possible." He says and I hear the clicking of the mouse as he stands up. "What were you doing on the computer Maxwell?" I ask my brother. "Playing battleship on the internet," he grins and, because he looks so cute standing there grinning I go on the tips of my toes and give him a kiss on the cheek. "Hey! You got your lipstick all over my face.Angel!!! That is RED!! Why did you do that? Now people are going to get the wrong ideas." "And the pretty girls won't flirt with you as you walk out." He grins again, "All girls flirt with me, even if they think I am having an affair, or they think I am married." "Well, I have to go and evidentially so do you, so bye, I love you." "Love you too," he says already shifting his attention to the leggy blonde walking by my office. He then bends down and gives me a quick kiss on the cheek as he runs out of my office yelling his good byes. I shake my head then shut and lock the door to my office. After I finish I walk to Mr. Winner's office, 'this may turn in to the second best day of my life.' 'What if he got me in trouble?' I thought to myself while walking down to Mr. Winner's office, 'then I'll just kill him.' I answer my self. I already knew that it wasn't Mr. Winner, himself, that had called my office, it was his replacement, Mr. Winner was almost never at the office, he didn't need to be, he was already a multi-billionaire. He grew up in money, so she didn't understand why the heck he even wasted any money on this stupid company when he could just sell it and get millions more dollars. 'Maybe he isn't like all the other rich guys in this world, maybe he had, well, a heart.' Many people in this company have seen him, many described him as very kind and very cute, and others had told her that he was just a regular cute rich guy. I walk up to the office and am about to knock on the door when I hear an angry female voice coming from the room on the other side of the door. "What do you mean he is not going to be here until next week?" "Calm down Dorothy, he will be back soon but you will not be able to see him because his schedule is extremely full." 'Dorothy. its probably just one of his angry lovers that can't wait until he comes back so she can--" my thoughts cut off when I hear something highly breakable crash, there is a click and the door opens open, out walks a blonde haired woman with shockingly blue eyes. "Hello." I tell her as she glares at me. She glares at me some more then asks, "where you listening to that conversation?" "I came here because I was called down here and I heard something break then you came out, so, no I was not listening to your conversation but I think you should apologize for whatever you broke." "Do you know who you are talking to?" She asks and when I don't answer she tells me, "I am Dorothy Catalonia, Princess Relena's advisor, and also the third most powerful woman in the world, who, may I ask, are you little girl?" My back stiffens and I decide I do not like this woman at all. "My name is Angel Marie Maxwell, and I have the second highest position in the company, and at the moment I am incredibly thankful that I am not you." I say, starting to smirk at her face, which has started to glare at me again, "now I have business to attend, if you don't mind me." I say and walk right past her in to the office to help clean up the mess that she made. She stands in the doorway then says, "You will regret talking to me like that, I now know who you are." She slams the door shut causing the man crouching across from me to jump. "That was very brave and stupid of you Angel." "I know that, but right now I don't really care, plus, she won't find anything on Angel Marie Maxwell, she doesn't exist, the name is Angel Katrina Marie." "I see, you are a very intelligent young woman, and that is why I was told to call you down here, oh by the way, my name is Mr. Jeremy Sanders, and I am Mr. Winners advisor." We shake hands, like business people and he keeps talking. "Did you know that you are the only person under 35 that has made it to the position that you are in right now, well, except Mr. Winner. And your résumé says that you finished High School when you were 14, very impressive." "Thank you." "You are very welcome, Mr. Winner, himself, would like to schedule a meeting with you this Thursday, in other words about three days, will that work with you?" "Yes it will." "Now, today some porn sites were visited on your computer, they were made for males, not females. Could you give me an explanation?" "Yes, my brother is here and every time he comes, he goes on my computer, and every time he visits site like that, I will make sure he does not ever do it again." "Okay that is all I wanted to talk to you about, I will e-mail you more information on the meeting on Wednesday, do you have anything to ask?" "No, sir. Well, I will see you around. Goodbye." "Goodbye," we shake hands and I leave. "DUO!" I yell and head for the blonde's office, 'that boy is so dead.' I walk in to the blondes office, I don't even knock, "Duo, darling." I say absolutely pissed at him. There are reasons that I am pissed too, two good ones: number one, he went on MORE porn when I told him specifically not to, and two, he is sitting there smugly making out with one of the people that work with me, along with distracting her from the work, I know, she has to do. He turns his head and seeing the fury on my face he stands up, picking up the girl with him, since she was sitting on his lap, and he sets her down. "Is that your lover," the blonde asks. "His lover? HIS LOVER?" I yell, ready to murder both of them. "I-guess not then." she says; now sorry she even asked the stupid question in the first place. "Now Angel calm down, sweetie, I am sure that whatever has pissed you off can be resolved in yo-" he says before I cut him off by yelling. "No! We will resolve it right here and right now! You told me you were not going to go on any porn sites! I told you they tracked them, I told you dangit!" I say avoiding as many swear words as possible, "now because of you I got in big trouble." The blonde snickers and I turn on her, " and YOU! If you don't quit making out with guys in your office while you are supposed to be working I will get you fired, so help me God!" She starts to cry. "Now, Angel, sis, you didn't need to take your anger out on her, if you want to take your anger out on someone take it out on me, now come over here and we'll tal-" "No we won't talk I am leaving!" I say and run out of her office and run to the elevator, where he couldn't get to me, to stop me from running away. I think about the conversation I just had and think, 'why does he always do this to me? What did I ever do to him?' When the elevator lands on the first floor I run out but just as I about to get to the doors someone grabs my arm, and immediately thinking it was Duo I turn around ready to hit him, but the man I saw was definitely not Duo. He had short blonde hair and the sexiest blue eyes I have ever seen on a man, he was very muscular and tall, from the first glimpse I took a guess that he was about six feet six inches tall, if not more. He was wearing a very expensive looking suit; maybe he is here to visit Mr. Winner. "Are you okay miss?" he asks in the friendliest of voices. When I just stare at him he asks again. "Hmmm? Oh, yeah I am fine." I say snapping out of the trance I was in. "May I ask why you were running?" "I just got done fighting with-" my brother comes down on the elevator and comes straight to me and the man with the friendly blue eyes, "speak of the devil." I say, annoyed at this stranger for keeping me here. "Thank you, sir, for getting her for m-" my brother cuts himself off as he gets a good look at the blonde mans face. "Quatre?" "Yes.how did you know?" he looks at my brother, "Duo!" "How you been? Jeeze, what has it been, four years?" "Yeah, that's about it." All while they are having their little conversation I sit there, with the blonde's hand still wrapped around my arm, so I sit down just to see if they are paying attention. They are. They both look down at me, in unison, and I glare back up at both them. Both men laugh as the put their hands down to help me up I just cross my arms like a little kid having a temper tantrum. Duo solves this problem by going behind me and picking me up, I start running as soon as he lets me go so he runs after me and after he gets to me he scoops me up like I weigh nothing at all. "Let me down!" I scream, which gets a lot of peoples attention. "Perhaps we should let her go, she can't go too far." Quatre offers, so Duo lets me go. "Oh, by the way young lady, it is pouring rain out there!" He yells but by time he finishes I am out the door and running home.  
  
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I stand in front of my bathroom mirror with a hair dryer trying to get my hair dry from the rain that fell on me during the fifteen minute dash I took to get home. 'I will find out who that Quatre guy was and give him a piece of my mind, then I will kill my brother.' The rest of the days until Thursday, my meeting with Mr. Winner, went really fast, I had nothing to do at the office so Duo came over every day. He made me apologize to Kelly, the blonde he liked, and I pretended that I had forgiven him. On Wednesday I received an e-mail that told me the meeting was scheduled for eight in the morning. When I went home that night I called my brother because I was afraid that I was going to get in trouble for something, he was on the Internet so I went on my computer and signed on to the Internet and I.M.-ed my brother. I told him my problem and he told me every thing was going to be fine, and to trust him. After he was done telling me that he said that I should sign off and go to bed, I, naturally, do what he suggests, just because I love him so much. As I lay in my bed I think about the harsh words that were said on Monday, and I fall asleep to the sounds of the almost silent music coming from my radio. 


	2. Chapter 2

The Difference Between Wishes And Dreams: Chapter 2  
  
Written By: Angel Marie  
  
I wake up at five thirty in the morning to the sound of my beeping alarm clock, then I go take my shower, put up my hair, do my makeup, and do any other morning duties, making sure I am out the door by six thirty, and I head to work. When I arrive it is about seven, I walk in to the building and go straight to the elevator. I press the button for going up, the doors to the elevator open and I walk in, with another person, and I start searching in my purse for a tube of lipstick. "Oh, good morning to you young lady," a man with a vaguely familiar voice says. "Hmm." I say concentrating on finding the correct shade of lipstick in my purse. "What are you looking for in there miss?" I look up, and to my surprise I am looking straight in to the eyes of the blonde haired, blue-eyed man Duo called Quatre. "Hello." He says smiling. I groan, "why?" I say looking up to the ceiling, "why do you torture me?" "Who tortures you?" "God, now please get away I am in a good mood at the moment and would not like to have it ruined by the likes of you." "Fine, whatever you say, oh, by the way you forgot to press the button for the floor you want to go to." "Thanks," say pressing the button with a number eight on it. He looks at me strangely, "what?" "Where are you going exactly? To visit your mother?" "No. my office is up there." "How old are you ten, twelve years old?" "Actually I am fif-" I stop as the door opens, thanking God that I finally could get out, I get out as soon as possible heading straight for my office, thankful he was not following me. For the rest of the hour until the meeting I drank five sodas and played about one hundred games of Crescent Solitaire. I head to the office about ten minutes early and arrive there five minutes early. So I waste three of my five minutes getting a soda and talking to the people around his office. When there is only about one minute left I go to the receptionist and she tells him that I have arrived. When I walk in he has his head down and all I can see is a lot of blonde hair, 'this looks like,' I think to myself, 'Quatre!' I think to myself as he looks up. "Holy mother of God! You have to be kidding me!" I scream. "Is there something wrong here," the receptionist asks as she pokes her head in. "Yes there is, Lucy, I thought you said Angel Marie was here," he says, evidentially in denial, I don't think he wanted to talk to me any more than I wanted to talk to him. "This is Ms. Marie, sir, she has identification with her." "And why, exactly, wouldn't I be Angel Marie?" I ask now pissed at the blonde for ruining my day, again! "Thank you Lucy, that will be enough for now, if I have any problems I will call for you." "Yes, sir," she says shutting the door as she leaves. "So, Angel, is it?" I stick my nose up in the air, "oh, quit it, anger does not fit you very much." "How would YOU know? Come on tell me, I am waiting. Tell me, how would you know what fits me and what does not?" I yell madder at him now than before, 'how dare he assume he knows me after three five minute times meeting me.' He smiles, kind of happy that I just proved him wrong, 'maybe anger suits her after all,' he thinks to himself, but somehow I hear it. "What the heck?" "What? Is something wrong?" "Why do you keep thinking you know me so well? First you tell me that anger does NOT suit me, then you tell me that it DOES suit me!" "I never said it suits you, darling, I thought it, but if I would have known that you would have intercepted my thoughts, I wouldn't have even thought about thinking it, if that is possible." "I don't care, whatever you had to say you can e-mail it to me," I write down the e-mail address and storm out of his office, fuming. I decided to take the rest of the day off and do some cleaning at home, or maybe I should search for a new home and job, for the moment all I wanted was a bigger house, nothing more or less. I go home and go on the Internet, my brother, I.M.'s me and asks why I am on the internet, I tell him what happened, when I finish I read all my e-mails and see one from a WinnerBoy256@aol.com and open it. It says that I have another meeting scheduled for tomorrow with Mr. Winner, and it also says that he was sorry for anything he said, or thought, during the first three meetings. The meeting is at the same time as the one today, and if I don't show up he will give away my position and/or come to my house to discuss it. I make a new column in my buddy list called Enemy's and add WinnerBoy256 to it, just to find out he is online. I signup for AIM and IM him with my new screen name, AngelsSilentTears, telling him I hated him more than anyone in the world. He IM-ed me back and told me that he was sorry and that he hopes we can work it out in the meeting tomorrow, so I tell him I am not going and I sign off of the Internet. Fifteen minutes later there is a knock at my door, I pull open the door and right in front of my face stands Mr. Winner, "did I read your message correctly?" He asks, leaning on my doorjamb. "You aren't coming to the meeting tomorrow?" "No, I am not." "And why not, are you scared or something?" ". Well, after what happened today. I don't know if it would be a smart thing to do." "Okay then, here is the deal, you either go to the meeting tomorrow or you go out to dinner with me tonight." I stumble backwards, "that is definitely not a good idea, if I am not going to be comfortable around you in the office how do you expect me to be comfortable around you if we are out to eat.together. I am going to quit tomorrow so-" "You can't quit," when I just raise one eyebrow at him he continues. "I-we need you in Winner Corps. You do-" "Try absolutely nothing, I haven't done anything since I got promoted on Monday." "Hmm, we can get that fixed, if you are up to a lot of work." "I worked up to this position hoping to get a lot of work but I haven't gotten it yet." "Okay," he checks his watch, "can we finish this little chat tomorrow?" "Yeah, but I have stuff to do at eight." "Like what?" "I have to go to my parents house at eight for breakfast, I had to push it off till tomorrow because of our meeting today, I won't do it again." "Okay, then how about I take you out on a business dinner, strictly business. Promise." "I don't know. give me your word that it will be only business." "You have my word, my lady." I sigh, "Fine, where and when?" "I will come and pick you up at eight, dress fancy, and leave your hair down please, it might look really nice that way, I wouldn't know, but I would like to see." He grabs my hand and kisses it before I could pull it away. "Good night, Angel." "My. someone can be a gentleman when he wants to." I say blushing as he stares at me intensely because I feel like he can see right through all of my boundaries, materialistic and mental. "I know, its all part of my charm." "And that same person has a very large ego." He shakes his head, "oh, yeah, I have to go, I will see you at eight tomorrow night, remember, dress for a ball and if you have to buy a dress or two put it on the companies tab. Oh, you might want to get two other formal dresses, a cocktail dress, or two, and get a couple royal dresses for the renaissance plus any other dresses you think you may need for special occasions. In fact bye all the clothes you want. You might want to look for a house of your own now, instead of this small apartment. Goodbye my dear." He says to my surprised face, laughing, I glare at him wondering why in the world I would need that many damn dresses. "Have fun going on a shopping spree tonight and tomorrow, in fact take tomorrow off." "What if they don't believe that I work at Winner Corps?" I ask. "Hmm, that may be a problem, I might have to go with you, would you mind that?" He asks realizing that I may be right about them not believing me. "Sure, why not. Oh, by the way, I already have another house, all my other stuff is in there, I am moving in, for good, next week." "If you need any help moving in call me," he hands me his business card. "Bye." "Bye, and thank you." "Your welcome." He leaves me standing there still shocked from all the things he told me to buy.  
  
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We invite Duo to come with and on Friday Quatres' driver brings us to the local J.C. Penny's to get my cocktail dress, or dresses, and my brother helps, not really, but he tries. He brings me a bunch of poor excuses for clothing and says I should try them on, so I tell him to try to imagine me in that and he puts them back immediately. Quatre brings me a long, almost skin tight, at the top, deep, red dress that has a dip going all the way down the back to almost the butt then has all the fabric bunch together to create a small train that is supposed to follow behind you when you walk. I look at it and nod, he hands it to me and I go in to the changing room. Before I head back out I look into the mirror, "I look so. different, so pretty," I think to myself as I look in the mirror. I walk out to see both Duo and Quatre sitting on chairs waiting for me to come out. As soon as I walk out both of the men stand, "wow," Duo says just standing there. "Angel, you look.beautiful." Quatre says and I blush. "Thank you," I say to both of them in almost a whisper. "Turn, Angel." My brother demands and I obey, "took the round about way didn't you Quatre?" He asks as he sees how low the dress dips in the back. "I don't know what you are talking about Duo," he says also noticing how low the dress dips. 'Oh my God she is beautiful." I blush because I heard his thoughts again and thought he was speaking out loud. I look at his face just to see his eyes are already on my face, we stare in to each others eyes for a while and after what seems like five minutes my brother hands me another cocktail dress to try on, before even looking I go back in to the changing room to try it on. I strip of all my clothes and look at the new dress before I put it on, its long like the other one, but this one is purple and has slits going up the leg until about it hits the knee, it dips down low in the front and the back, but does not have a train like the other. Deciding my brother made a decent choice I slip it on and walk out of the dressing room. "I like them both, can we go now?" "What's the hurry sis?" Duo says wondering why I wanted to leave now. "There are so many other clothes to get." I say and head back in to the dressing room to change out of the dress. I walk back out in my jeans and tank top carrying the two dresses in my arms. We buy them and head to the store where we would get to design my renaissance dress. This could prove to be the most interesting day of my life.  
  
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'Over two million dollars.' I think as I lay in my bubble bath and all the fragrances soak in to my skin. 'All spent on clothes, shoes, and accessories. I haven't ever even spent that much on a car, house, and my whole wardrobe, besides the new clothes, put together. Let alone just fancy clothes and stuff like that.' I finish in the tub and wrap myself in a towel; I walk to my room to choose which dress to ware on my "business date" with Quatre. 'Well, lets see, he told me to dress for a ball, so should I wear my violet dress, my dark purple one or should I go for the black one?' I ask my self as I look at the three dresses. "Purple." I pull the purple dress out of the closet; it is a regular formal dress, fluffy at the bottom and tight at the top. In the light you can tell it as tons of sparkles, but in the dark it just looks like a regular dark purple dress, it ties down the back lacing down kind of like what reminds me of shoestrings or ballet shoes. I dry my hair after I put on underwear so I didn't have to worry about the towel falling off while I am passing a window. After my hair is dry I put it up so I can slip the dress on and tie it easily. After I get the dress on I go in to the bathroom to do my makeup and decide what to do with my hair. 'He told me to leave it down, but what makes him my boss? Just to make him mad I should leave it up.' I pull out my box and put my hair up in a giant bun in the back of my head, letting a layer fall down to give a black veil effect to the back of the dress. I run in to my room, grab my shoes and head down the stairs, I am in my house now because after we got done shopping we had nowhere to put my new stuff so they helped me move a vast majority of what was left in my apartment in to the house. I almost trip over my cat, Jazmine, as I head in to the kitchen to see what I could snack on and not get all over my hands and my dress. I go in to the cupboard and grab a bag of Rugrats fruit snacks, no mess to clean up after. I finish just as the door bell rings and quickly slip on my shoes before I head for the door, when I get to the door I open it and am looking almost eye to eye with Quatre, seven inch heels make me only three inches shorter than him. 'Oh holy mother of God help me survive this,' I think as he gives me his arm and starts walking me towards the limo that awaits us. 


	3. Chapter 3

The Difference Between Wishes And Dreams: Chapter 3  
  
Written By: Angel Marie  
  
As soon as both of us are in the limo and buckled up the driver takes off to wherever we are going. "You look very nice tonight, Angel." "Thank you. But I do have to admit that you look better," he smiles; he is wearing a regular tuxedo, but he looked a lot better in it than anyone else I had ever seen in a tux, at last in my opinion. "Did you forget to leave your hair down or did you do it to annoy me?" "To annoy you." "It worked, very well. So if you do not take it down right now I will for you." "You want to wager on that?" "Yes." "You gave me your word this was strictly a business dinner." "I know I did, but at the moment I want to break my promise, and just touch you in a way that has absolutely nothing to do with either of our jobs." "No. Don't say that, you are just making it worse." "Making what worse," he asks playing with one of the locks of hair that I had curled earlier that was hanging down the side of my head. "You are just making me more uncomfortable around you, I don't want to be scared, at least not scared of men in general, or you, specifically at the moment." He backs away, dropping the hair he had in his hand. "Fine." We sit there for about three minutes with no moving or talking, his cell phone starts ringing. "Would you mind if I." "No, go ahead." He flips open his phone, "hello, Quatre Winner speaking. Oh, hello Dorothy may I help you with something?" 'Dorothy. where does that. oh that bitch that broke that vase in Quatre's office.' "I had things to do. Do you really want me to answer that question?" he looks at me. 'Would you mind if I told her I am taking you on a date? Just to make her jealous?' 'No not really, I don't like her anyway. She was a total bully to your assistant, and she claims she is all-powerful, or some thing like that. Tell her that you are taking Angel Maxwell out not Angel Marie.' 'Okay,' he looks away again, "I am out, and I won't be at the office until a month from Tuesday. I will call you later and tell you I am busy at the moment. I am taking a very beautiful woman to dinner. No it is not my mother. Why should I tell you. Is that a threat?" He looks at me and winks, and I giggle, "The person who giggled. oh, that was Angel. Angel Maxwell, why?" "Quatre?" "Hmm," he says looking at me. "May I turn on some music?" "Sure, darling," he keeps his eyes on me but turns his attention back to the phone conversation. "No you may not talk to her. She is not just a child. No, absolutely not. I would never and you know it. I have to go bye." He says hanging up on her before she got a chance to try and stop him. "So where are we going," I ask. "Can't tell you." He answers simply, as if it answered all my questions. "Okay, why aren't you going to be at the office for a really long time?" "I will tell you that later, over chilled champagne." "And what, exactly, are we eating for dinner?" "Depends, what kind of pizza do you like?" "Me? Shrimp, are we really going to eat pizza and drink champagne?" "If you don't mind." He says, obviously pleased that he had slightly confused me, "are you okay with that." "Yeah, why wouldn't I be that is my favorite meal, how did you find out?" "Background research, I also know you absolutely love seafood, which explains why you picked shrimp pizza." "Are you okay with shrimp pizza?" "Yeah, I love it." "Hey, can I quiz you to see how much you really know about me?" "Yeah, sure, why not." "What is my favorite color?" "Red, you also like pink." "Umm, What do I like to do in my spare time?" He thinks a while, "sing, write, and draw, sketch, whatever." "What is my favorite language?" "Japanese." "What is my favorite place?" "France, you like the sound of Paris in particular." "Very impressive." "I know."  
  
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As soon as we picked up the pizza we dug in. "Mmm, you have no clue how much I love you right now." I say with a mouth full of shrimp pizza. He laughs, "man, if I would have known it was that easy to get a woman to love me I would have done this a long time ago." He looks over at me; his blonde bangs hanging in his face, his blue eyes full of laughter, "now that you love me, will you merry me?" "Where is my ring?" He reaches in his pocket and my heart starts pounding against my ribs, he pulls out a small, but long, black velvet box. He opens it up and inside sits a necklace made of gold with a amethyst teardrop gem surrounded by round diamonds, he pulls it out and I gasp as he holds it out to me. "It's not to ask you to marry me," he says, "it is a gift. From me." "I can't take it, it is far too expensive. And you barely know me." "Then just try it on, I want to see if it looks good on you." 'He knows that if I try it on I will have to keep it. damn him! And how did he know I had a weakness for.wait a minute! I am going to kill my brother!' He laughs, 'did he hear that?' I take the necklace from his hands slowly and he grabs it back. I look at him. "Let me." I shake my head, knowing that it's not a good idea. "Please let me." I sigh, turning so he is facing my back. He raises his arms and hands so that they go over my head and become wrapped around my neck, he quickly clasps the necklace in the back and turns me so I look at him again, he looks down at the necklace, causing my heart to pound against my chest until I think I will explode. "Jesus, it fits you so well, the perfect size and all. The color of the gem accents your eyes and so does your dress." He says all this very slowly and looks up at my face. He moves his face a little closer to mine then just freezes there, as if testing if I would stop him, I don't I just turn my face and look out the left window of the limo. He groans, confused, "why are you afraid of men so much, or is it just me?" "Men in general, but you do make me a bit more jumpy than most men." "Why are you afraid of men?" "Ask my brother, he knows." Would you mind if I called him right now?" "No, you do have the number, right?" "Yeah," he says while dialing the number, "do you want me to put it on speaker phone?" "Sure, why not? I'll ask for him, his new girlfriend is probably there." He hits a button and I hear a ring and then someone picks up on the other line. "Hello?" A woman with a southern accent says. "Hi, may I speak to Duo please?" "Oh sure honey," she pulls the phone from her ear and yells, "Duo, its for you. it's a girl." 'I didn't know your mother was from the south.' 'That's Duo's new girl friend, not my mom, that would be wrong.' "Hello?" I hear my brother's voice through the phone. "Hi Duo, how are you?" Quatre asks. "I thought it was Angel on the phone, but that's okay. I'm fine, and how are you?" I look at Quatre when he doesn't reply, "Oh, I'm getting by," he says after a minute longer of silence. "I need some information on your sister." "What kind of information?" Duo asks slowly. "Why is she so afraid of men?" "Does she know you are asking me this?" "Yes I do Duo, honey." I say. "Oh, Angel is there, by the way darling, where did you put my silk boxers last time you wore them?" "Try in your underwear drawer." We hear a bunch of clattering of things. "Thanks, now are you alright with me giving Quatre this information?" "Yes, otherwise I wouldn't let him ask, I will stop you if you get close to saying too much." "Can you tell me now?" Quatre asks "Fine, calm down. The main reason that Angel is afraid of men is because her father raped her mother to get her pregnant with a little boy but when a little girl was born, when she grew up, the little girl ran away because she was afraid that he would do the same thing to her. The night before she left, ran away, she heard him talking in his room, we don't know if he was talking to himself or another person but he said that he was going to rape her and kill her since she was too young to produce any children yet, he even said exactly how he was going to do it in excruciating detail." "That little girl was-," he turns to look at me, "Angel." I nod slowly, "Oh you poor darling, did he ever hurt you?" I don't respond at all. "Angel," Duo says quickly knowing that I will not ever answer that question in front of anyone I barely knew. "Your daughter wants to talk to you." He hands the phone to a little girl who says "Mommy?" "Hey Jasmine, baby, how is uncle Duo treating you?" "He let me eat cake for supper, mommy. It was strawberry shortcake, so it was good for me," she said with a slight lisp. "Oh, and I suppose he told you that." "Yeparooni, ooh! Mama! Guess what! Uncle Duo brought another pretty lady with him when he came home, she has long black hair just like you." Quatre sits there looking at me, "you have a kid?" I nod, "but you are only sixteen, how old is she?" "Three!" Jasmine claims. "Almost three," I correct her. "Nobody told me you had a kid," he says trying not to think of how young she must have been when she had the little girl on the other end of the phone line. "Hey mommy who is that man talkin' in the back?" "That is Mr. Winner, he is mommy's boss." "I want to meet him! Please momma!" "Honey-," "Why not?" I hear Quatre say and I look over at him. 'You don't have to. she really is a handful.' "I don't care, I love kids. Please momma?" He says, evidently deciding to side with Jasmine. "Fine, why not." "Goody!!!!" Jasmine yells through the phone.  
  
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"You didn't have to do that." "Yes I did, if that man is going to feed her cake for supper we have to spoil her more, we mustn't be out done by your brother." He smiles and I lay my hand on his. "Thank you, for being so kind." He pulls our hands up to his mouth and kisses mine. "No problem." The car stops and a little girl races to it with a man and a woman following her. I open the door and get out, crouching on the ground as my daughter flings herself in to my arms. "Mommy! I missed you." "You just saw me this morning." "I know but I wish I could come to work with you, it gets kinda boring with only an uncle and his girls around all the time. I want to go home then go to work with you on Monday." I look up at the man standing behind me, picking up Jasmine and balancing her on my hip I stand. "Mommy he is cute," she whispers in to my ear, "you should keep him." "I can't keep him," I whisper in to her ear. "Why not?" "You don't keep people, or you aren't supposed to." I look up at him; from what I can tell he is comparing us, comparing her long, black hair to mine and her blue eyes to my purple ones. "Angel, she is beautiful, I have never seen a prettier young lady." Jasmine giggles. "You want to hold her while I scold my brother?" "Sure, if she doesn't mind." "I don't," she tells him and I hand her to him, walking to my brother. "Duo? What did I tell you about giving her sweets for supper?" "I won't do it again. Promise." "You better not, I have to go, bye." "Bye." I walk to the limo and follow Quatre and my daughter in. 


End file.
